1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to providing high resolution three dimensional photographic prints and, more particularly, to providing high resolution prints from thermally printed internegatives where the prints can be converted into three dimensional lenticular photographs.
2. Description of the Related Art
Three dimensional pictures or photographic prints sometimes called lens sheet three dimensional pictures or lenticular sheet three dimensional pictures conventionally are limited in the number of discreet images that can be captured and presented. The quality of a three dimensional photographic print, as the print view point shifts, is governed by the number of discreet images that can be printed. That is, as the picture is rotated with respect to the picture viewpoint, the higher number images that are successively provided, the smoother and more realistic the image appears to be. The rotational resolution depends on the number of images. For example, when the print has two images taken from two view points a sudden shift between the images occurs as the print is rotated and the viewpoint shifts. If twenty images are provided in the same angular rotation from twenty slightly different viewpoints, the transitions between images are very small and the composite image seems more lifelike. As a result, high angular resolution three dimensional images are desired.
In non-digital three dimensional images, the resolution is limited by the number of lenses or discreet exposures used to generate the three dimensional photograph. When three dimensional digital images are printed, the quality or angular resolution is limited by the resolution of the digital printer. With digital techniques, the number of images that can be interpolated from two or more original images can be as large as desired. However, because of the resolution limitations of conventional printers, the number of images that can be printed and the angular resolution possible is limited. For example, a digital three dimensional image with 12 discreet image components designed for use with a transparent, lenticular cover sheet with 42 lenticals per inch requires a color print with a resolution of 504 dots per inch. Typical low cost digital color printing technologies currently are limited to 200-300 dots per inch (DPI) for color thermal printers, such as the Kodak XL-7700, and 400 DPI for color xerographic printers, such as the Canon CLC-500 printer. As can be seen conventional low cost color printers cannot produce three dimensional images with 12 or more image components. Finer lenticular materials (more lenticals per inch) have less noticeable vertical striations and produce even more realistic three dimensional images, but require even higher print resolutions and would require digital images with more discreet image components. Printers that provide up to 610 dots per inch (DPI) resolution using photographic paper and 1524 DPI using photographic film are available, such as the digital image recorder LVT 1620B available from Light Valve Technology a Kodak subsidiary, but these printers are very expensive. What is needed is a method of using lower cost, low to medium resolution digital printers to produce three dimensional images with a high number of image components, thereby producing a high quality three dimensional image.